You might be wondering why I’m changing how we do things here in GroovyLand regarding this blog - join the club - I am too. I knew I was stressing out about it after my little spring break when I decided to only do one big blog a week on Friday with daily mini-blogs during the week. I will then perform a live version of Fridays blog during open mic comedy night at rain dogs in 5-p0ints, then post that performance as a pod-cast on Tuesday.

It’s a plan, but I probably won’t stick to it. I never do. This blog is MY world - my own private movie - I can do anything I want. I can change nothing or I can change everything. I can only post pics on Tumbler - I can do only a pod-cast - I can move to Terlingua. I can move to France. I can stay here and do nothing but work on my book that I really don’t care if anyone reads, or write songs that I really don’t care if anyone hears. I can do anything I want. What I mean by not caring is that I am not doing anything for it’s perceived reward or for recognition or money - I’m doing it because I can do anything I want. I’ll say it again...“I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT"

That was the first and most important thing I thought I had lost when first diagnosed with pd. It’s scary to think the opposite - I can’t do anything I want, it's scary and sad. We won’t even face that direction. But, if I think about it there are very few people in this world that can say, truthfully, that they can do anything they want. Too bad, for it is a very liberating notion. There is one caveat: I must be willing to pay the price.

Like our fellow up top I can spend the night sleeping on a truck tire, I only have to be prepared for my back to hurt for weeks and possibly a rude awakening if the driver were to receive orders to pull out. I must be wiling to pay the price for even saying “I can do anything I want.” Many people find this a very selfish remark and my wife worries that I’m planning on walking off and dying in the desert. There are many things I will not do because I am NOT willing to pay the price and they are the wrong thing to do, but, after all is said and done, there still is something very satisfying in saying - come on, say it with me... “I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT”

feels good doesn’t it?

Peeples Choice

CLICK TO GO TO THE EVENT PAGE

If you have yet to hear troubadour Grant Peeples you are missing a treat. We just recently met and were able to jam some. We hit it right off. I look forward to doing some gigs with him real soon. I remarked last week that I would tell you the astounding account of how we met and here it is...

Astounding Story...

I LOVE OKRA

One time while playing a outdoor music festival on the Suwannee River I woke up, in the middle of the night, with a craving for okra and tomatoes. I had only tomatoes - no okra. While unknown to me, across the campground, another musician woke up with a hankering for okra and tomatoes too - he had only okra - no tomatoes. We both set out in the dark in search of our separate missing items. We were about to give up when, an hour before dawn, our paths crossed. We stopped, amazed that each had the others absent ingredient.

Then the unseen voice of a Raven cried “you boys bring that stuff over here! I’ve got a skillet, a good fire, I do not care for okra and tomatoes but, I’ll cook some up for you.”We ate our Okra and Tomatoes and the Raven drank his coffee as the sun came up. I wish you could have been there; it was a beautiful morning.

And that’s how I met Grant Peeples

It’s Funny HaHa and Funny Peculiar

I have no desire to be a professional comedian. From what I can gather it’s a very hard life and few are successful at it. That’s not the reason I started doing the hot potato comedy open mic extravaganza at rain dogs on Monday night. I don’t know the reason; I don’t know why I do it.

I was there, for the first time, a month ago to catch a friends act and when they asked if any one else wanted to give it a shot I said “yeah" and jumped up and started talking about nothing and everything for 5 min. It was clean nervous fun (my favorite kind). That could be the reason I do it... it’s fun

On February 3, 1961, in the midst of a severe blizzard, he (Bruce) gave a famous performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. It was recorded and later released as a three-disc set, titled The Carnegie Hall Concert. In the liner notes, Albert Goldman described it as follows:This was the moment that an obscure yet rapidly rising young comedian named Lenny Bruce chose to give one of the greatest performances of his career. ... The performance contained in this album is that of a child of the jazz age. Lenny worshipped the gods of Spontaneity, Candor and Free Association. He fancied himself an oral jazzman. His ideal was to walk out there like Charlie Parker, take that mike in his hand like a horn and blow, blow, blow everything that came into his head just as it came into his head with nothing censored, nothing translated, nothing mediated, until he was pure mind, pure head sending out brainwaves like radio waves into the heads of every man and woman seated in that vast hall. Sending, sending, sending, he would finally reach a point of clairvoyance where he was no longer a performer but rather a medium transmitting messages that just came to him from out there — from recall, fantasy, prophecy.A point at which, like the practitioners of automatic writing, his tongue would outrun his mind and he would be saying things he didn't plan to say, things that surprised, delighted him, cracked him up — as if he were a spectator at his own performance!

DEFENSE BUDGET = OBSCENE

Some aspects of Mr. Bruce’s career or act I would rather not emulate, such as his substance abuse problems and his desire to push the “what is obscene?” envelope. A lot has happened since Lenny’s day, and although many truths need to be told over and over before they sink in, I feel they must be fresh and in line with the times. The “F” word has been used so much it means little, that’s what Lenny Bruce had in mind. But there are many obscene ideas still floating about and they must be removed from the pool, maybe that’s my job, I don’t know.

I’m just gonna have fun, like I’m verbally writing my blog before a live audience. I’m gonna jam using words instead of notes and especially without notes that say “insert punchline here."

What is Music and How Much Is It Worth?

MUSIC IS DEAD

Good questions. Do we as a society place value on music or on the celebrities that administer it. EZ answer - the celebrities. Nietzsche said that only sick music makes money today and this is what I feel he meant. In order to make any money in the music industry you must first do one thing - sell out, and give the people what they think they want. And who tells them what they want - the music industry. To me that is sick and far removed from any creative impulse that is responsible for true artistic beauty and enlightenment.

The beauty of being a self taught existentialist is that you can never be wrong. Life is just something you make up, there is no wrong or right. But, we’ll save that discussion for a later date. I am not a student of philosophy so if you find my understanding of existentialism to be inaccurate, your cover charge will be gladly refunded.

JUST IN TIME

What does this have to do with me? Simple, if only sick music (art) makes money then the only true music (art) is that which does not. I wish to reflect and create the truth. I must therfore give away my music and art, poetry and emotion. If I am meant to make money then I will, but it CANNOT be my motivator. Remember though, there is a difference between not making money and losing money, and producing and distributing music (even digitally) costs money. I do not wish to lose money. So, if giving away my music causes me to do that then I’ll just make it in the privacy of my own home. You are all more than welcome to come by and listen... no charge.

More about this later. I can put things off because why? “I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT”. That’s why.

I can do anything I want, except rid myself of pd. And that is true irony - I can do anything I want, except the one thing I want the most of all.

Have a great weekend and stay safe. Hope to see you at Grant’s show on Saturday night and Monday night at rain dogs in 5-P0ints.

QUESTION - Has anyone had a bad experience with One Spark? If so I would love to hear it please email me andywardking@gmail.com - I hold off with my story or experience until after they’ve moved on.

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just say yes!

meet Andy Ward King, a professional musician and artist until a diagnosis of parkinons dsease at age 49 forced him into an early retirement., he now uses his music, his art along with the whimsical world he has created in this blog as therapy to ( as he puts it ) outsmart his brain and make the daily battles with parkinson’s a little bit easier, to give him that all important reason to get up on the morning, to make his life worth living. Andy has learned how to say NO to gving up \ NO to depression and apathy \ NO to following willingly the road of decline that stretches before him. he learned that to say no to all of these things all one has to do is say yes. Andy has learned to just say YES to life/\\